Many knew Giuseppe Belvedere in Paris.
They would join him to take pictures of him, to greet him, in the van that had become his home and where he did not feel alone. To keep him company were his beloved pigeons.
The Italian homeless man died yesterday at the age of 76, in the cold of the French capital. But many remember "Monsieur Pigeon" who went around the central district of Beaubourg with the inseparable cart full of envelopes of various kinds. A swarm of pigeons followed him: he took them, treated them if they were injured, then kept them with him : "They say that they carry diseases, it's not true - he said in a documentary about him shot by his friend and supporter Diane Richard - they are men who have diseases".
Originally from Calabria where he had children and even grandchildren, he had ended up in ruins after a career as an accountant in Paris. After so many years he was left with an old Mercedes that had been scrapped and the van in which he took refuge at night with the pigeons to be treated.
Precisely for those animals he had been expelled from the public housing that had been assigned to him by the Paris Commune. Among the inhabitants of the neighborhood many hated him, blaming him for dirt and lack of decorum, they avoided him, some traders treated him badly. He said he had been attacked about fifty times.
But most of the people loved him, on social networks (the association “Gli Amici di Giuseppe” was created in his honor) he was the constant protagonist of initiatives, even photo exhibitions. Many petitions have been launched for him, including one to the "première dame" of France, Brigitte Macron, to ask for support and a roof for the winter.
(Unioneonline / D)
